Naxxramas
thumb|Interior of Naxxramasthumb|All sorts of undead monstrosities roam the halls of Naxxramas. Naxxramas is a raid instance floating above the Eastern Plaguelands. It has the shape of a necropolis and has the questionable honor to serve as the seat of one of the Lich King's most powerful officers, the dreaded lich Kel'Thuzad. The Instance is currently regarded as the toughest one around, which should not be attempted without at least 40 well-equipped (preferably Tier 2 or Tier 3 armor) players. Naxxramas is also the home of many of the game's most powerful items, including many pieces of Tier 3-sets, and 60+ quests with rewards such as Atiesh, Greatstaff of the Guardian. It is expected that when The Burning Crusade is released, finishing this instance will still require 20-30 well-equipped level 70 players. General *'Level:' 60+ *'# of Players:' 40 *'Location:' Raid instance located above the Plaguewood in Eastern Plaguelands (Loc: 40,26) *'Abbreviation:' Naxx *'Final Boss:' Kel'Thuzad *'Released:' Added in Patch 1.11 History An ancient Nerubian ziggurat, Naxxramas was torn free from the ground by agents of the Lich King to serve as Kel'Thuzad's base of operations as he spread the plague throughout Lordaeron. Due to Kel'Thuzad fighting a war against: * the Scarlet Crusade and their demon puppet-master, * the Argent Dawn, * the Forsaken, and * the humans of the Alliance intent on avenging the dead of Lordaeron. ... as well as constant incursions of adventurers from every race and nation into the Scourge-controlled Plaguelands on a daily basis, his forces have been severely taxed to maintain the security of his necropolis. But soon the gates of Naxxramas will open, and Kel'Thuzad's new forces will be poised to sweep away all opposition to the Scourge. Road to Damnation Blizzard has posted a short back story for Naxxramas on the official site: Road to Damnation Gaining Entry To enter Naxxramas, you must become attuned (which you do through the Argent Dawn) and then enter a Teleporting Spire in the Eastern Plaguelands. Although there is a green raid entrance deep inside Stratholme, it is blocked off by a gate. The requirements for attuning to Naxxramas will depend on your reputation with the Argent Dawn: The fastest way to get into Naxxramas is to run Scholomance or Stratholme until you are Honored and then simply buy the required materials. Prices obviously vary, but to give you a rough idea, the materials costs are approximately at Honored (and about half that at Revered). If you choose to become exalted with the Argent Dawn, you can complete the attunement for free; however, this requires a great deal of work as you stop getting reputation points from non-elite mobs after gaining honored status, and at revered status you only receive reputation for bosses and quests. The reputation reward for the entrance quest is 500 rep for a character currently Revered. For more information on the Naxxramas attunement quest or the Argent Dawn, see the following resources: *Argent Dawn Reputation Grinds Resistances Nature The beginning parts of 3 of the 4 wings (Plague, Spider, and Abomination) are in fact rich in Nature damage. This is good news for players who built up their nature resistance gear in Ahn'Qiraj. Frost Players will need a lot of frost resistance to fight the final bosses in Naxxramas. Kel'Thuzad is a lich, but does not require a lot of frost resistance to defeat him. The Sapphiron encounter requires a very significant amount of Frost Resistance (150-200), but is NOT frost based like Ragnaros is fire based. Frost resistance gear has proven to be rather scarce thus far, luckily, the Argent Dawn has made available several armor patterns that provide considerable frost resistance and bosses in Naxxramas drop very high quality epic frost resistance pieces. Shadow Shadow is the third major resistance required. Death Knights and Necromancers use powerful shadow magic, and Kel'Thuzad has a few shadow spells as well. The final boss in the Plague wing, Loatheb, uses shadow based damage also. Shadow resist gear can be found scattered throughout various instances, so this shouldn't be a problem. Fire Certain bosses encounters need some fire resistance, like Grand Widow Faerlina and The Four Horsemen. Dungeon Information thumb|The Necropolis model Structure Naxxramas is structured like a giant wheel. Players enter at the centre of the Necropolis, and then choose 1 of 4 wings to progress through: * Spider Wing - This wing contains loads of spiders, as well as crypt fiends. The final boss is Maexxna, the giant spider. * Abomination Wing - This wing is filled with abominations, of course. It is likely to be the most physically intensive wings, as abominations are known to hit rather hard. The slimes there deal heavy nature damage too. The final boss is the Frankenstein-esque Thaddius. * Plague Wing - In this wing players will have to deal with various diseases. Creatures known to populate this wing include bats, gargoyles, bog beasts, oozes, and ghouls. The final boss is Loatheb, some sort of fungal monster. * Deathknight Wing - This wing is loaded with Deathknights, known for their combination of powerful shadow magic and raw melee skills. The final bosses are the Four Horsemen. One of the Four Horsemen is Highlord Mograine, who has an important role in the Ashbringer quest, which should be obtainable after you acquire the Corrupted Ashbringer from Mograine. The four horsemen are considered the hardest bosses in the instance until Kel'Thuzad. Once the final bosses of the four wings are defeated, players will gain access to the final "wing" of Naxxramas, in which they will encounter the Frost Wyrm Sapphiron, and the lich Kel'Thuzad. Progress thumb|Naxxramas map with bosses locations. Each boss drops a different quest token for Tier 3 sets. Each boss and its drops are listed in the boss section below. On the wall of each boss chamber and various places are some Frozen Rune objects, which requires a Word of Thawing (a tradeable drop from trash mobs) to defrost. Defrosting a Frozen Rune yields a number (4-6) of tradeable blue "Frozen Rune" items that are used in crafting frost resistance gear. Frozen Runes are also consumables, behaving like Greater Fire Protection potions (1500-2500 fire damage absorbed for 1 hour). Due to the high quality and projected need as reagents for the craftable Frost Resist recipes, it is not advisable to use these runes as consumables. You have to beat the last boss in each wing to progress. Once you beat all four wings, you get a chance to fight Sapphiron. After you beat Sapphiron you may challenge Kel'Thuzad. Map thumb|Naxxramas map with yards distance 10-100, released under GPL. * A map from BlizzCon how Naxxramas looks like: Necropolis Naxxramas instance * Map of Abomination Wing: Here * Map of Plague Wing: Here * Map of Deathknight Wing: Here * Map of Spider Wing: Here * Map of Frostwyrm Lair: Here * Map for Atlas: Here * Large size map: Here * Tactical map (large): Here (.png) * Tactical map (huge): Here (.tif) * Map for Sapphiron and Kel'Thuzad: Here Encounters Bosses Below is the full list of bosses (in parentheses are the Tier 3 armor part the boss drops quest item for). There are fifteen boss encounters in Naxxramas. First full Naxx clear was done by the Horde guild Nihilum on Magtheridon (EU) on September 7, 2006 (2 and 1/2 months after Naxx came out on June 20th 2006). The easiest wing is the Spider Wing, Instructor Razuvious being the easiest boss (arguably comparable to Grobbulus, but Grobbulus sits behind a major gear check: Patchwerk). The Plague Wing bosses Noth and Heigan are on a similar level of difficulty of Anub'Rekhan, but in different aspects (Heigan is VERY difficult in the individual coordination aspect). Abomination wing bosses are in the middle (with the exception of very easy Grobbulus), Patchwerk is commonly conceived as a hard gear check and healer's fight. The most difficult bosses, in order of rising difficulty, are Thaddius, Loatheb, Gothik the Harvester and The Four Horsemen. (Thus, the wings below are listed in rising order of difficulty to fully clear.) Loot Naxxramas loot includes the Tier 3 raid set. For more details, see Naxxramas Loot. Links * World of Raids - tracks Naxx guild progress worldwide * Inner Sanctum's Naxxramas Raid Strategy Guide Category:Zone:Eastern Plaguelands Category:Instances Category:Raids Category:Instance:Naxxramas Category:Crypts Category:Added content